Law and regulation

More state legislatures are exploring how to regulate earned wage access products, and interest rate caps are central to that discussion. New York state's pending legislation is taking a novel approach.

Jon Weiss, Wells Fargo's co-CEO of corporate and investment banking resigned from his position with plans to retire; A new CFPB report says military service members paid more for auto loans and add-on products; City National Bank's Kelly Coffee is leaving the bank after her 2023 demotion; and more in this week's banking news roundup.

The two companies continue to tick items off their year-end to-do list, which analysts hope will tee up the merger for finalization in early 2025. Regulatory approval remains a major question.

The companies held out hope that they'd get skeptical regulators to sign off on their $286 million deal before determining that canceling it was in their best interests.

Los Angeles dispute resolution platform Ejudicate was banned by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for forcing borrowers into arbitration with an affiliated creditor.

A hearing included discussion of European laws that will put banks on the hook for fraud schemes, and whether the U.S. needs a digital identity standard.

Four companies are fighting CFPB enforcement actions by claiming the agency cannot be funded by the Federal Reserve, which has not been profitable since 2022. The consumer bureau calls the new legal theory "meritless."

The court didn't rule on the merits of any regulation, but made it much easier to challenge rules governing banking.

The trade groups said Friday that a proposed rule from CISA would burden firms with overly broad reporting requirements as they scramble to respond to incidents.

A report on efforts to deconflict federal cybersecurity regulations found the Treasury in particular has not completed its recommendations.

The efforts, which respond to President Biden's October executive order on AI, aim to improve synthetic content detection and improve the trustworthiness of AI models.

A new policy directive aims to fortify critical infrastructure by enhancing collaboration between U.S. intelligence agencies and systemically important financial entities.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Martin Gruenberg says the agency would likely use a resolution strategy for a global systemically important bank that puts the holding company into resolution and keeps subsidiaries operating under a bridge company.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., tapped executive compensation and cannabis banking bills as bipartisan priorities that could see movement in the Senate in the "weeks and months ahead."

Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., will propose legislation on Friday that would curtail the Federal Reserve's ability to slow down the bank merger process by mandating that the central bank must approve or deny applications within 90 days of receiving them.

The original lawsuit was one of several filed in 2014 in a coordinated effort among federal and state regulators aimed at fraudsters trying to cheat distressed mortgage borrowers.

Republican lawmakers spelled out concerns that the Financial Stability Oversight Council's ability to designate nonbank financial companies as systemically important could circumvent the lawmaking process when it comes to cryptocurrency.

The American Bankers Association requested that President Joe Biden tell Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to study the impact of more robust bank regulation.

The resolution to nullify the CFPB's small-business data rule, which would require lenders to collect demographic information before making loans to small-businesses, passed in both chambers with some bipartisan support.

The new rules also expand the use of "proven protections," such as multifactor authentication, according to Adrienne Harris, superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services.